Île de Ré (French pronunciation: [il də ʁe]; variously spelled Rhé or Rhéa; Poitevin: ile de Rét; English: Isle of Ré, /reɪ/ RAY) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait.

Located in the arrondissement of La Rochelle, Île de Ré includes two cantons: Saint-Martin-de-Ré eastwards and Ars-en-Ré westwards.

In the mid-twelfth century, a Cistercian monastery was founded on the isle, where the Abbot Isaac of Stella sojourned amid the Becket controversy.

[3] In February 1625, the Protestant Duke of Soubise led a Huguenot revolt against the French king Louis XIII, and after publishing a manifesto, invaded and occupied the island of Ré.

Soubise then returned to Ré with 15 ships and soon occupied the Ile d'Oléron as well, thus giving him command of the Atlantic coast from Nantes to Bordeaux.

[5] A few months later, in September 1625, Charles, Duke of Guise, organized a landing in order to recapture the islands, with the support of the Dutch (20 ships)[5] and English navies.

[6] In 1627, an English invasion force under the command of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, attacked the island in order to relieve the Siege of La Rochelle.

The main port, Saint-Martin, was fortified by Vauban in 1681 as a component of the belt of forts and citadels built to protect the military harbour of Rochefort.

During World War II, the beaches of the Île de Ré were fortified by German forces with bunkers, in order to block a possible seaward invasion.

The easier transportation system has stimulated the purchase of holiday homes by people from as far as Paris, who can visit for week-ends, mostly in spring and summer.

Using the bridge requires the payment of a toll (either €8 or €16 return for a normal car depending on the season) and makes it the most expensive road to use per kilometre in France.

After the TF1 channel was purchased by Bouygues, the talk-show Droit de réponse (Right to reply), shown on prime-time Saturday evening by Michel Polac was suppressed after criticizing this bridge.

A tradition sees fishermen sell a small quantity of their catch directly on the quays after a harvest, enabling them to buy a drink.